The Influence of Content Marketing on E-commerce Platforms: Evidence from China

Abstract

The e-commerce industry has advanced into the “Red Ocean” earlier than anticipated. If e-commerce platforms continue to expand with the traditional business model in which product operation is at the center, it may be challenging for platforms to enhance their competitiveness and maintain their customers. Hence, many platforms are attempting to innovate their business models. The integration of content marketing with e-commerce activities has emerged as a popular tool to attract customers by creating compelling content and offering to sell appropriate services or products online. This study combines key points of traditional e-commerce with market changes. The influence of traditional factors (logistics service quality and product diversity) and content marketing factors (content quality and social presence) on E-commerce platforms is examined. We select customer experience as the mediator between traditional and content marketing factors and customers’ repurchase intention. A total of 307 valid questionnaires were collected from Chinese users. By using AMOS 24.0, data analysis is carried out, the importance of content marketing in the online market is identified and recommendations are put forward for the development of such platforms.